Pink Floyd news :: Brain Damage - March 6th - FORO SOL, MEXICO CITY, MEXICO

Address of venue: Viaducto Piedad y Río Churubusco S/S Cd Deportiva, México, DF 08400. MAP

Tickets for this concert went on sale on December 14th, through Ticketmaster.com.mx, or telephone +53 25 9000.

Our thanks to Ramiro Diaz de Leon for supplying the concert poster as shown below, and to Israel De Anda González, and Ricardo Huicochea, for the ticket scan which is also below.

Do not read on if you don't want surprises to be spoilt, regarding what the band played!

The third of a trio of nights in Mexico, and another thrilled crowd, a decorated pig, the triangular illuminated prism, a children's choir, and much more... Yes, a children's choir!

In an echo of the Madison Square Garden concerts last year, Roger had a children's choir help out in the encore rendition of Another Brick In The Wall pt 2. (Picture to the left showing the choir is thanks to Andres X Trevino).

To say this concert didn't generate chaos around the area is a big lie. It took us 2 hours to get there, and I live just a 20 minute drive away from the area.

It was crazy... but we managed to get there just in time to catch a nice place and await for Roger to start with "In The Flesh".

The Foro Sol was packed like crazy, and everyone was singing along to almost every song... especially "Wish You Were Here" and "Comfortably Numb", yet several people didn't know Southampton Dock, nor Fletcher Memorial, and even less Leaving Beirut. Still, Roger got an ovation for every song.

Roger did his usual stuff seen on other concerts, but it's worth mentioning that he did greet us with a "muy buenas noches" (very good night) and was saying "gracias" (thanks) or "muchas gracias" (thank you very much) repeatedly.

Also, the pig got a huge response from the crowd, as there were anti-Bush messages written on it, and the "Another Brick In The Wall (Pt. II)" choir had an anti-border wall message written on their white shirts.

We couldn't have a better place to see Roger perform the third set of the show, and needless to say, the place went nuts when Comfortably Numb finished... and as one of the greatest nights of our lives finished.

Our thanks to Héctor, who commented about the show that "the moon was behind the stage all the time, that was really nice", for sending us a link to the Mexican newspaper Jordana's website. There is a report on the concert alongside a couple of GREAT pictures of the pig and a manic looking Roger!

Unfortunately, at times the sound was too loud and it saturated the sound system. But the performance was excellent!

Pues aquí comentandote que el concierto de roger estuvo grandioso en cuanto a contenido y sonido aunque la guitarra y la bteria fallaron un poco ya que inmediatamente es inevitable compararlos comn gilmour y con mason respectivamente.

Durante la cancion de sheep sacan un marrano inflable con algunas leyendas contra el cerdo de bush pero lo real mente sorprendentefue cuando dejaron que se volara el marrano inflable hasta perderse en el horizonte.

Realmente soy fanatico de floyd y de roger, hace 5años que vino roger por primera vez no me gusto su concierto pero esta vez estuvo increible, ahora si se esmero en dar un muy buen show.

Los periodicos aquí en mexico comentan que hubo una asistencia de 45,000 y el concierto duro aproximadamente 2hrs 40min.

No cabe duda que roger es uno de los mas grandes genios musicales de la actualidad.

CONCERT REVIEW - by BD contributer, Rainer Matos (who also supplied the pictures alongside)

First half:
Well.... I'm so down I can hardly count...I went far... I flew high... in a word: PERFECT!!!

OK, here we go... 24 hours ago I was with my sister and some friends inside the Foro Sol, in the best section of them all (that's General A, standing)... Surprise, surprise when I went through the tunnels down to General A and realised I would be like ten meters from the stage!!! And I was!!! Then we waited 2 hours inside (plus the 4 we had spent outside buying T-shirts, mugs, pens, photos, posters, etc.). Suddenly, the hand in the projection started to move... take some smokes, a few drinks, changing the radio stations (I was a bit confused about hearing ABBA in a Roger Waters show lol). It was all scheduled to begin at 8:30, but technical reasons made it begin until 8:50 (the 20 longest minutes of my life). When the lights of the Foro went off... everybody was shouting like crazy... the place was more than full (more than 55 000 souls).

The band moved in quickly, everyone to their places, and Roger went out at the end, with ALL the lights on him. He seemed surprised of the enormous crowd and the hugeness of the damned place. Slowly walked to his microphone and started with the famous shouts of EINS, ZWEI, DREI, ALLE!!!!!!!!!... and so into "In The Flesh" (one of my favorites). Then to "Mother", which I felt a little more quick than usually but we don't really care about that right? Then came "Set the Controls" and oooh boy that Ian Ritchie was great in his trumpet solo (if that thing was a trumpet). "Shine On..." started with bubbles falling out of the tall part of the stage, amazing! Yet I don't know why did they skip some parts of it, but it doesn't matter again... it was the first one that made me cry! When Snowy started the four-note sequence.... oh God, I haven't heared a crowd shout and get more crazy than that one.

Then into Have A Cigar... amazing!!!! My second favorite (just after Sheep), though it wasn't a highlight but the solo was Goooood so exciting, that Dave Kilminster knows what he's doing (my sister couldn't stop shouting at him "you're so sexyyyy!!!! I love you!!!". And so to Wish You Were Here... where I stayed without words... I cried like a fool, watching the pictures of our legendary lost Syd on the huge screen. We didn't let Roger sing!! It was incredible!! Our voices were all reunited as one, I swear!

Then Roger took seat to begin with Southampton Dock (one of the 3 or 4 that not everyone knew) and an excellent background video. Then to The Fletcher Memorial Home, incredible message, awesome images at the back. Perfect Sense was a little disappointing just due to the fact that I never saw the famous astronaut above of us... I think Roger didn't bring him to Mexico, but no problem... in the line of "Strings of a Vienesse Quartet ran out across the land", he played an invisible violin, that vision has stayed in my head for so long! Perfect Sense 2 was outstanding! Everybody singing CAN'T YOU SEE IT ALL MAKES PERFECT SENSE!

Leaving Beirut was extremely well received by the audience, I say it because there were few of us who had heared it, but the live version of the tour is a thousand times better than the original, with Andy Fairweather-Low's solo at the beginning and the story taking place as a comic in the back. The Bush line was the highlight of the song. Aaaand so into Sheep, the best one of the night according to me... just the first notes from Jon Carin's Kurzweil, everybody screamed like really crazy, everybody knew the pig was coming out in that song!! But we started like kind of disappointed because... it was the 2nd verse and the pig hadn't come out!!! I dared to think he hadn't brought it, like the astronaut.... but suddenly in the middle of the song.... I shouted to everyone in my zone "MIREEEN ALLAAAAAA!!!!" (that's LOOK OVER THERE!!!) and everyone turned their heads to the left of the stage and our pink friend appeared and went up slowly to the middle of the stage. It said in one of the sides "Cerdo Bush: derriba el muro de la frontera!!!" which stands for "Pig Bush: tear down the wall in the border!!![between Mexico and US]". And in the last minutes of the song, they cut the ropes and the 10 meter pig flew high, really high into the sky.

Dark Side of the Moon:
foro solo concert pic

After running for a few beers (to recover my vocal strength), I returned to the place where we were standing, and there was a full moon in the screen, growing bigger every second. At the same time, if you want to see it as a coincidence, the real moon started to appear in the sky (near the piggy who was at this point a little pink spot) but unfortunately ALMOST full. The band came in with the last seconds of Speak To Me and got into Breathe, which was very magical. Dark Side was entirely sung by EVERY soul in Foro Sol. Then came On The Run, which had amazing visuals, a very scary train, the rainbow spiraling and getting into tunnels and nice mixes from Jon and Harry in their keyboards. Then the clocks in Time, again everyone screamed until getting mute. Nice percussion solo from Graham Broad (he almost doesn't make it to the drums in the point where the lyrics start lol). The guitar solo by Dave was amazing, totally magical, awesome, wonderful!!! It took you into another dimension, to the real moon and beyond!!!

And so to Money, one of the real highlights of the whole concert. The green screen was amazing as well, the sax solo from Ritchie was wooooow I have no words. In the change to 4/4 I saw everybody jumping (me as well) and singing the guitar solo... yeah, you read well, following the whole guitar solo with the voice, extraordinary!!! Then Us & Them, very sentimental, amazing work again in the sax. Jon Carin sings very well (I never thought he did it so well after the Pulse version of Comfortably Numb... awful). Any Colour You Like was another highlight indeed, the visuals, the synth, the guitar (again, Kilminster is wonderful!!!). The best pics I got were from this song, the combination between the visuals in the screen and what was happening on stage was unique! Then came Brain Damage, very emotive but yet mysterious, with the floating pills and the nice synth solo, and Eclipse, which was simply perfect. And so they left us there, in expectation, wondering if they'd come back... and so they did!

Roger grabbed the microphone and took a paper out of his pocket. He read the name of an association which I don't remember now... but suddenly some kids came out from the back of the stage, like 20 of them. Roger saluted each one personally and placed them behind him. The Happiest Days Of Our Lives started in perfect form. The sound of the helicopter was so impressive that some people started to look for a helicopter in the sky. And suddenly to Another Brick In The Wall pt. 2...... never have I seen another crowd so united, so strong, so crazy. I mean, if you don't know the lyrics to that song you have to kill yourself... but I think it wasn't the case, everyone sang like crazy and the kids started to sing and dance behind Roger, who was actually dancing with them. Everyone had the biggest of the smiles in their faces XD!!!!

Then to finish with Vera (all the children had returned to where they came from, with Roger saying goodbye personally each by each of them). Nice images of Vera Lynn on the screen, everyone again sang it. Then Bring The Boys Back Home, which was full of explosions which you could feel to burn your face... I admire Andy F-L because he stays quiet and doesn´t move even when the explosions take place 5 yards behind him. Well... and the last one... Comfortably Numb, certainly another highlight... amazing. Lyrics amazing, sung by every god damned soul... Solos FUCKIN' AMAZING!!! The duet between Snowy and Dave was incredible... but really INCREDIBLE. Snowy's great cause he just does what he wants in the guitar, doesn't mind about the time, he just plays which is great!!!

And well... so ends my LOOOOOONG review of the concert for all of you guys. This has been incredible. The best day of my life. Surely one of the best experiences in my whole life. I am just 17, what can I say? I have too much to live but this concert will always be part of me and will have one of the biggest places in my memory for soooo long! Thank you, Brain Damage, for letting me share these with everyone. Thank you, Pink Floyd, for being the best band ever and making such music.

But thanks to you, Roger, for giving me the best night of my life and for taking me for 3 hours to the Dark Side of the Moon!

I think amazing is just not enough to describe this concert; to be there, while Roger Waters sings "Shine On You Crazy Diamond" is just one of those things I knew for sure I was never going to experience, but I was there and it was unbelieveable good.

The sound, the lights, the performance were just flawless, the crowd was so excited; I was able to see 10-year-old kids, teenagers and adults all together to listen what Roger brought to our country.

The songs that the crowd enjoyed the most were definitely "Mother", "In The Flesh?", Wish You Were Here", "Another Brick In The Wall" and "Confortably Numb"; and definitely one of the greatest moments was the appearance of the giant pig above us, you could se all the cell phones taking pictures of the big balloon, and when it was released, it was a magical moment.

Another great moment was the appearance of the giant illuminated prisma above the stage, when it started to rotate the crowd was just crazy, you could see the hands rising while they were being illuminated by the lasers.

Roger was very kind to the crowd, he said some things in Spanish like "Buenas noches" (Good evening!) and "Muchas Gracias!" (Thank you very much!), he even read a letter in Spanish to the crowd.

Thank you Roger for the most magical concert of my life, I really hope you to return some day to Mexico.